I heard that there are two methods to develop yeast: in cold (which makes the dough taste better) and warm places (makes it develop faster). I also heard that I should use sugar to activate it and some mention salt, though I have no idea for what purpose. How to give yeast the best conditions to develop? Do those depend on whether the yeast is dry?
What are the best conditions for yeast to develop
yeast
Related Topic
- Bread – the best way to catch wild yeast for sourdough
- Bread – What would cause dough not to rise while making no-knead bread
- Baking – an appropriate water to yeast ratio for hydrating yeast for bagels
- Bread is not rising
- Bread – What are the different flavors of sources for homemade baker’s yeast
- Baking – Using proofed (?) yeast in a recipe (confused about amounts)
Best Answer
I don't find as much influence on flavor .vs. temperature as is generally claimed - I'd suggest running your own experiments on that front before assuming all that is written is utterly true. I do often drag out bread-making for days, but I don't find my "hurry-up and bake" loaves noticeably inferior, though they are somewhat different.
Once properly rehydrated (or improperly rehydrated, so long as it's not so improper as to kill it) dry yeast or wet makes no difference. My current version of "properly" is based IIRC on directions from Danstar for brewing yeast, but the baking yeast don't seem to mind - water (ideally boiled and cooled) at about 85-95F/30-35C sprinkle dry yeast on, don't disturb/stir/etc for 15 minutes, stir and wait 5 more minutes, introduce to food (flour) and try to avoid drastic temperature shocks. They will put up with much less ideal treatment, but if you exceed 120F/48C you may well finish them off.
I generally provide no sugar to baking yeast, following some book's advice to let them adapt to eating flour if that's what they are supposed to be doing. It works. I tend to delay adding sugar when making a sweet bread with this in mind. Yeast, flour and water should be all you need to get yeast growing. Salt inhibits yeast - some folks think it's vitally important, IME it's not.
When I need bread in a hurry I pull out all the cheats - I get all the liquid to roughly 100f/38c, I add sugar from the start, I knead the dough once (pretty throughly) when mixing and form it straight into pans, I put the pans in a warm (95F/35C) place to rise. It makes perfectly decent bread - try it sometime, you may be surprised. It's not my normal process mostly because it's more effort than my normal process and I'm often not in much of a hurry.
At the moment I have a batch going where I rehydrated the yeast in not particularly warm water which ws not boiled and cooled (and thus has chlorine in it being town water supply), forgot to get any flour to them before leaving the house for several hours, put some flour in when I got home, whatever yeast survived that managed to take off and multiply overnight, I baked part of it the next morning and added some more flour and water to what remained. It's been at 68F/20C more or less the whole time. Later I'll probably add a bunch of eggs, more flour and veer it towards something Stollen-like with some sugar, butter and fruit/nuts.
In my personal experience, yeast and yeast bread are remarkably adaptable and generally forgiving. "Best" really depends on what you want - a few days in the refrigerator is slow, but if it makes bread you like better and you have the time, it might be best. Most folks swear by that for pizza dough. Experiment.